


The Mystery of the Handheld District

by ReduxReloaded



Category: OS-tan
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26115844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReduxReloaded/pseuds/ReduxReloaded
Collections: OS-tan





	The Mystery of the Handheld District

“Making your debut is exciting because you want to show your worth, but it was tough for me. Being the first thing deemed 'different' yet having to meet everyone was nerve-wracking because I’m surrounded by iPhones, iPods and iOSes... most of them seem to like me but occasionally I have to keep my hopes down because you can’t always trust people.” Violet sighed for a moment then closed the notes app, thinking about something for a moment before leaving her room. The floor was all lit up and the walls were white, some sentries which were wearing an outfit like Jasper’s walked right part Violet and were both clenching onto a metal box. Whatever was in the box made Violet curious, but she had different things to worry about. There were doors on both sides of the corridor with an elevator at the far end to get to the second floor of the Handheld District. Lights were above each door, but they were instead some sort of detectors, but Violet would prefer to not find that out the hard way. 

“Excuse me, Seren wants to meet you." A short iPod touch-tan wearing a shiny silver and black suit was standing beside Violet and looked frustrated. 

“Is something up?" Violet asked the iPod touch.

“...Seren wants to meet you and told me to take you there."

“Sorry if took too long." Violet apologized but the iPod touch did not seem to care about her apology.

“Follow me." They both walked down the corridor and passed several doors that had light coming out of them. Violet peeked into one of the rooms and saw a bunch of iPod touches dumping iMacs into a crate which was soon to be sealed up.

“What's happening in there?" Violet asked the iPod touch with her.

“Why do you ask?"

“Those look like perfectly fine iMacs! Why are they getting treated like trash?"

“We're replacing them with iPad, It's not a big deal. Now, follow me.”

“But the iMacs!”

“I just told you! We’re replacing them with iPads.”

“But *someone* has to stop those iPod touches from treating the iMacs like garbage!”

“You don't see me crying about it, do you?” The iPod touch grumbled and lead Violet to a fancy elevator which they entered and used to get to the next few floors. She gazed outside the glass and saw what looked like some kind of “futuristic city”. It was not entirely futuristic, but it reminded Violet of something out of Star Trek which made her think of even better ideas for the next iPad when it debuts. The iPod next to her was certainly irked by what Violet had done before but that was a serious thing, why would someone treat the iMacs like rubbish? She would not discover why until a good long while but for now Violet had to meet Seren.

“So uh, what’s your name?” Violet asked the iPod touch.

“Why?” The iPod touch answered back.

“I’m just interested, that’s all.”

“I’m Apex Forstall.”

“Apex... that’s an intriguing name, it doesn’t even seem like a name at all!” Apex simply ignored Violet when she said that and kept on skimming through her emails. Violet made sure she looked neat by using the glass as a mirror to fix anything that seemed off. “So, Apex, what do you think of the iPad?”

“Why?”

“I’m just curious.”

“...I have better things to do than answer your stupid questions.”

“I don’t think it’s that stupid.” Apex ignored Violet once again and instructed Violet to follow her. They walked down another passageway which seemed to have many iPod touches wearing lanyards to hold their ID cards and were wearing casual clothes, not flip flops or anything but black work shoes and all. The two iDevices finally arrived at a door which had ‘Preparation Room’ engraved on it and Apex took off her lanyard, swiping the card onto some machine that unlocked the double sliding doors.

“Seren, you wished to see Violet?”

“Yes, thank you Apex.” Apex walked over to Seren and passed her some sort of envelope which Seren slid into her pocket, turning towards Violet. “So, you’re Violet?”

“Yes.” She nodded her head.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Violet. Shall I be your tour guide?” Seren put out her hand to shake hands with Violet. Violet walked over to her and shook hands with Seren, admiring how elegant her attire was.

“Tour guide?”

“You forgot, didn’t you?” Apex budded in.

“Maybe...” Violet answered back nervously.

“Hahaha, it’s all good Violet. I was going to give you a tour around the Handheld District.” Seren chuckled while trying to adjust the gauntlets on her hands after shaking her hand. “There’ll be snacks and drinks when the tour is over.” Apex glared at Seren when the snacks were brought up, but she just pointed at an empty trolley that had many trays on it. The iPod touch facepalmed and shook her head, taking the trolley and leaving the room with it.

“You have a fancy outfit, Seren.”

“Oh? It’s not that fancy, it just suits my personality.” Seren twirled around and showed off her outfit which was a dark grey coloured frilly suit, high lace-up blue charcoal coloured denim boots, black shorts, two metal gauntlets on her hands and short black hair which some of it covered her right eye. “Yours looks nice as well, like that choker on your neck. Are you an edge lord?” Seren pointed to the choker on Violet’s neck.

“No, I just think it’s fashionable and suits me.” Violet was certainly wearing a choker which was the dock on the iPad, along with a large aluminium-coloured skirt, long-sleeved t-shirt the same colour as her skirt, a black tie, and black boots. Her hair was long and purple.

“Well, shall we start the tour?” Seren asked.

“Yes!” Violet exclaimed excitedly. The tour started with them going back to the second floor of the building where they saw several rooms and offices. There was also a kitchen area with various utensils and dishes. A few more offices followed and then they went upstairs to the third floor. The two of them continued to walk, chatting about some insignificant things until they finally arrived at a room that was large. The floor had various shapes on it like a cave painting and there was a purple carpet which leads her to a throne made of pure gold... or was its gold-painted metal? Who knew? Marble pillars were next to the throne, a giant purple stained-glass Apple was behind the throne and two stained glass windows were beside the throne. One of them had a short girl with tiger features wearing and was wearing a sweater, a skirt and had long blonde hair. The other one had short hair, a staff that looked like the 30-pin dock connector and a dress. On another wall, there was a large stained-glass window that had many iPods on it like classics, minis, and nanos.

“This room is remarkable!”

“Heh, glad you like it. It’s our throne room.”

“Whose throne is that?”

“Oh, that was Dulcimer’s throne.”

“Dulcimer?”

“You don’t know her?”

“No.”

“She’s the glorious original iPod! If it were not for her, we would still be bound by Mac’s rules and policies which I think are rubbish.” Violet was too distracted by how enchanting the room was with the chandeliers on the roof and everything else you would to find in a throne room.

“Who’s are those iPods and that... one who looks like an iPod?”

“Well for one those two next the throne aren’t iPods. That one with the tiger ears and tail is Alpine Ive.” She pointed at the one on the left.

“Why does she have tiger ears and tail?”

“Oh, that’s just cosplay. That other one is... we don’t know who she is.” Seren pointed to the other stained-glass window. For some reason, the room had an ominous feel to it. Not because of the throne and glass-stained windows but the fact that the room was empty. There were no other doors, but you knew there had to be rooms behind the stained-glass windows with the iPods on it. Some iPods and an iPhone-tan were sorting with smaller things so Violet and Seren approached them. There is one thing the iPad-tan noticed, and it is that all the iPods looked identical except for their hairstyles and eye colour, other than that they wore the same clothing. The iPods and iPhone did not notice them walk over but they were discussing some stuff until the iPhone spun around.

“Why hello there, Seren.”

“Hello, Jasper. Have you meet our newest member yet?”

“I saw her at her debut speech but that’s all.” The iPhone said back.

“I see... Violet, this is Jasper and she represents the iPhone 3G and 3GS.” Seren explained to Violet.

“3G *and* 3GS?”

“Yeah, pretty cool right?”

“How can you represent two phones at once?” Violet asked Jasper.

“Don’t know but I do.” Jasper shrugged. “I should get back to doing what I was doing before. It was nice to see you, Seren!”

“It was good to see you too, Jasper.” They walked away from Jasper and left the throne room, heading to the atrium next. It was quite a large atrium as it had a large spinning fan on the roof and the second floor was held up by concrete posts. Beneath them was a large apple logo in the carpet but Violet's thoughts were distracted as a short girl in a chrome-coloured maid dress made her way to Seren and Violet. The short girl gave a stern glare to both Seren and Violet before turning away from them and yelling at some iPod touches to get back to work which confused Violet.

"What's up with her?" She asked Seren. 

"What?"

"That girl just now with the maid dress? What's her name?"

"North S. Forstall,” Seren replied, rubbing her chin. “She works at the cafeteria I need to show you.”

"Do we need to be there right now?"

"No. Did you want to go somewhere else?”

"I remember hearing about you guys having an auditorium and wanted to go see that."

"Well, then you'll be impressed, Violet. I think you’ve forgotten that’s where you said your debut speech.”

"Oh! Right!" Violet remembered. “I guess I'm just a little tired."

"I bet." They walk to the auditorium and after showing Violet it, they head back to the cafeteria for lunch. Both were greeted with an enormous room with white lights on the room in a single file, tables of fours and tables connected to the walls for people who sit alone. An iPod touch was sitting at a desk next to the door in the cafeteria and greeted them.

"So, what do you think of the place?" Seren asked.

"I like the lights and the cafeteria is amazing."

"The lights got burnt out last year, but we were able to replace them,” Seren said, pulling out a chair. "The auditorium is just beyond the double doors. We have a huge stage, speakers' podium and two large staircases on the left and right sides for the short ones. Why don’t you take a seat while I go order us some food?”

"Okay!" Violet sat down at the table as Seren walked away. She looked up at the ceiling of the cafeteria. "I don’t get it. Something doesn’t seem right, but I can’t figure out what it is.” She thought to herself. A little later, Seren brought their food and sat down. “It’s all apple products?” Violet stared at the tray of food.

“Always has been.” Seren laughed. "Well, eat up, you must be starving. " They ate in silence for a while before Seren got up to return the tray and returned to show Violet the auditorium. There were already a few people in it. A short girl with light blue hair was standing on a stage while a short girl wearing a suit stood next to her. They both waved at Violet and introduced themselves. The first was Javor, the second was Timber L. The auditorium itself had a large screen near the stage and beautiful lighting.

"This is really cool!" Violet said. "What else is around here?"

"Other than the auditorium?" Seren asked.

“Yeah.”

"There's the courtyard.”

"What's it like?"

"It has plants and a fountain but that's about it."

"There's got to be more!”

"Other than the auditorium and courtyard, we have the electrical room, network operations centre, sunroom, wine cellar..."

"That's a lot of places to do stuff!"

"I know, right?" A few more hours had passed, and the tour was over. Violet had seen most of the rooms and met some people along the way but there was still so much to explore. The Handheld District had so much to offer and more than Violet could ever hope to experience in just a single day. "Well, it's been fun, Violet. I hope we get to meet again sometime because I’m always so busy." Seren said as they headed towards the elevator to return to where they started off.

"Yeah, it's been fun. I hope we can do this again sometime." Violet waved as the doors opened. Then, she stopped and looked back at the cafeteria. North S. was staring at her when Violet waved so she turned around to write some stuff. Something about her seemed weird but Violet could not figure out what it was. It made her feel uncomfortable, so she turned to enter the elevator.  
—————————————————————  
“Hmm....” She looked back to see that the doors had closed.

"What is it?" She heard Seren ask.

"Nothing.” She said as she got on the elevator. "It's nothing."

That night, Violet could not sleep. Her mind was racing with questions about the place and what she had seen. Why had North S. looked at her that way? Whatever it was did not matter as far as Violet was concerned. The important thing was that she had gotten to experience the place firsthand and hopefully, she could find out why those iMacs were getting trashed. The next day she was back at it. She had gotten herself into the routine of exploring and enjoying the place. There was always something new to find and as the days passed by, Violet noticed certain things that seemed out of place. As the week passed, there were even more things that did not seem quite right. She tried to ask people why things seemed odd, but no one had an answer for her. Eventually, she stopped asking people and decided to investigate the place by herself. By the time, the week was over, she had discovered a lot about the place, and it was June.  
—————————————————————  
It had begun early. Dawn had awoken to shed its light on the Handheld District and Violet could hear the shouting even from outside her room. Quickly, she fixed her braid and ran to the atrium for the Handheld District's announcement. A bunch of iDevices and a new iOS were making their debut today and everyone was extremely excited about it. Some people were going the wrong way, so guards were directing them towards the auditorium to see the event. There was already a huge crowd there, but people were being told to sit down so they could see the big screen. An acknowledging speech would be given and then they would see the devices. Violet looked over into the stage and saw the same girl in the auditorium a month ago fall over and get yelled at by a guard. The whole room went quiet when they heard the commotion and Seren escorted them out of the room. As soon as everyone was seated, Seren walked back onto the stage holding a microphone and Jasper followed her.

"Thank you for coming everyone. I know we are all overly excited to see these new members but please stay seated while the acknowledging speech is given." Seren told them all before she handed the microphone to Jasper and walked backstage.

Jasper took the microphone and looked out at the crowd. “As we all know, we wouldn't be here if Dulcimer wasn't born. For those who do not know how the acknowledging speech works everyone quietly says her name until we get loud enough that we are chanting her name.” She said before pausing for a second. "So please while we are all here together, quietly say Dulcimer then chant it!” The crowd applauded as everyone quietly said her name while their minds went to work chanting it.

"Dulcimer! Dulcimer! Dulcimer!" Jasper clapped before looking at the crowd.

"It's been 8 years since she made her debut. For those past 8 years, she allowed us to have a place of our own which I am sure many of us are glad about, right?" The crowd cheered in agreement. "No more Macs are making us confine to their rules and all of that. But now, it is time we introduce our new members." The crowd went silent as everyone looked towards the door. A girl in a white plaid tea-length dress, light grey tights and light grey Mary jane flats and a light grey single buckle belt walked onto the stage. When they turned to face the stage everyone noticed they had two cameras hung over her chest and a notepad that clips into her belt along with a wide brim cream coloured hat with the Apple logo in it. They also had short brown hair and light blue eyes. Jasper handed the microphone to them and stepped away. "Please introduce yourself."

"My name is Sochi Ive and it's a pleasure to meet you all." She greeted in a soft voice. "As everyone may know in 2007, the iPhone reinvented the phone and it was different before the iPhone, like no App Store to purchase things. In 2008 the iPhone 3G and App Store were introduced, in 2009 the iPhone 3GS was introduced but this year will be the biggest leap you have seen since the original iPhone." The crowd clapped and cheered once again, and Sochi peacefully waited for them to settle again. "Today, I present to you, the iPhone 4!" She pointed at a large screen with the words 'iPhone 4' on it and hearing that sent everyone wild, but Jasper did not look impressed. 

"What kinds of features does it have" Someone from the seats shouted.

"100, but since that is a lot, I can only tell you 8 of them," Sochi told them. "The first one is an all-new design. Believe me, you got to see this thing in person, it's one of the most beautiful things you will have ever seen." A slideshow of the iPhone appeared on the screen. "This is the new iPhone 4. So, we have an all-new design, it's the thinnest smartphone ever, it has stainless steel for strength, it uses glass on the front and back for optical quality and scratch resistance, it’s got integrated antennas and an extraordinary build quality." She stopped to take a breath. "That's the first feature."

"We want to know the others!"

"I'm getting there." She went on about the new retina display, the A4 chip which powers the new iPhone, the addition of the gyroscope the whole new camera system and a few new apps like iMovie for the iPhone 4 and FaceTime. Once Sochi finished her introduction a new person came up onto the stage to also introduce themselves. This person was red wearing goggles, a black belt on the blue and white skirt with tools on it, 4 weird mechanical arms which have hands instead of claws, boots, tank top and a jacket tied to her waist. They also had short hair like Sochi and took the microphone from her.

"Hi, I am Durango Ive and it's a pleasure to meet you all."

"Is the new iPhone OS called iPhone OS 4?" Someone in the crowd asked.

"Well, iPhone OS 4, the most advanced operating system in the world. The first new feature is that we're are actually going to rename it!" Everyone gasped after being told that. "We took away the phone part of it and make it iOS 4 since it is on iPad, iPhone and the iPod touch. It has over 1500 new developer APIs and there are over 100 new user features as well." Durango looked over at the crowd nervously, but Sochi quietly cheered her on. "The biggest one being multi-tasking. Yes, tasks running in the background does exhaust battery life but not unless you do it right! We also have folders in iOS 4 by holding your finger on an app and putting it on another one. It's a great system for organizing stuff." The introductions went on for longer than an hour but both Jasper and Seren returned.

"I would like to thank everyone for coming to this but just to remind you, we have a new iPod touch and an Apple TV Software-tan getting introduced in September. This isn't an important one, but it would be great to see you all come along." Seren finished and returned off the stage. Even though they wouldn't publicly meet them until June 24 Violet was excited to work with both Sochi and Durango, but she wondered what the new iPod touch and Apple TV Software-tan would be like. Would they have new features? Would they just be prettier versions of the current models? She did not really care about the actual devices themselves; she was more interested in what people would think of them. Would the public love them or hate them? Once everyone was dismissed from the room, Violet stayed behind to talk to Jasper. She seemed to be alone now that everyone had left.

"Is everything okay?" Violet asked.

"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't it be?"

"You seem...uneasy about something. Anything specific?"

"No, everything is fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." She says unconvincingly and started to leave.

"Jasper, if you don't want to tell me anything then that's fine, but please try to relax a little. You're giving off a really negative aura."

"I'm fine. Thanks for your concern, but I really have to go."

"Alright, I'll see you later." Jasper left and did not reply to Violet. The rest of the day was uneventful, only the usual wandering around the place trying to find something to do. Eventually, just as it was starting to get dark, Violet noticed some iPod touches with Javor walk into a room with that had a door that looked slightly more secure than the other ones. She seemed suspicious about what was going on so Violet decided to pay a little more attention. She stayed near the room as if nothing had happened but tried to listen out to any conversation. There was some arguing and what seemed to be like some sort of insults being thrown back and forth. Then the arguing stopped and was proceeded by screaming. After about a minute, the screaming stopped as well. The door then opened, and three people walked out. One was a girl with thick silver hair tied up with a small black scarf who looked short and two guards. She did not follow the guards and the person but kept staring at them, before looking at the room they had entered then left. "The hell were they doing in there...?” Violet did not wait any longer and entered the room. "Oh my god!" The sight that greeted her eyes almost made her vomit. Javor was curled up on the ground and muttered some things under her breath, she was also shaking. Near her feet was an empty bottle of Jack Daniels. While that was enough to make most people horrified, the other things she noticed made her even more disturbed. Upon closer inspection, she saw that in addition to Javor being attacked with insults and curses, she had bruises on her arms and legs. She also had cuts on her face and neck, it looked like someone had tried to strangle her. "Jesus fucking christ! What the hell happened to you!?" Violet asked in a horrified tone of voice. Javor did not respond, instead, she just started whimpering. 

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She continued to say repeatedly. Violet approached her cautiously and held Javor.

“Are you alright?” Javor started crying harder as Violet continued to hold her. "What the hell did they do to you!?" She did not answer but continued crying. Violet tried to calm her down, but it was obvious that Javor had been through a lot. "Shhhh... shhh..." After a couple of minutes, she finally stopped crying although she still looked scared.

"I... I don't want to..."

“You don't want to what?”

"I don't want to go out there. I want to go back to Leona...”

Violet was confused by her answer. "Who's Leona?"

"I can't stay here, I'm scared... please..." Javor begged.

"You... can come with me instead...”

"Really?”

“Yes.” Javor smiled a little as she wiped away her tears.


End file.
